Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 86126 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86126 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Esther’s face turned beet red as the rest of us laughed. Even Noel let out a little giggle.
“I’m trash,” Esther wheezed out, starting to laugh. “Didn’t you hear my brother?”
“The best kind of trash,” Noel said loyally. She made a face when she realized what she’d just said and we all laughed harder.
The relief of having the confrontation over with relatively little bloodshed had us all a little wound up and that’s what Rumi found when he came in the kitchen door.
“I thought somethin’ was wrong!” He threw his hands up in the air. “What the fuck?”
I laughed harder.
“You missed the party, little brother,” Mick said, grinning.
“This is bullshit,” Rumi bitched. “I could be in bed with my wife right now!”
“Tell Nova she can thank me later,” Esther said, trying and failing to hide her smile.
Rumi gasped, his hand going dramatically to his chest as he stared at Esther. “You were my second favorite sister-in-law!”
“You only have two!” Esther tossed a kitchen towel at him.
Rumi laughed and caught the towel. His eyes landed on me and he raised his eyebrows in a silent question.
“Esther and Noel’s brother decided to pay them a visit,” I informed him.
Rumi scowled. “I’m assumin’ you let him hit you first.”
I nodded.
“Good boy.”
“Not just Ephraim,” Otto said with a sigh. The mood in the room shifted. “Noel’s father-in-law and brother-in-law came with him.”
“Great,” Rumi replied sarcastically, grimacing sympathetically at Noel. “You okay?”
“I’m okay,” she confirmed, dropping onto a kitchen chair, her hand on her belly.
“We’re hopin’ they got the message that she doesn’t want to see ’em,” Otto said.
Rumi waved that possibility away. “You can’t reason with a zealot,” he said in disgust. “They’re too used to livin’ in delusion.”
“Security in the house is top tier—”
“Woody set it up?” Mick asked. Our cousin Cecilia’s husband was a security expert—if he’d designed the system the place was more secure than most banks.
“Yeah.” Otto rubbed the back of his neck. Esther wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned her head against his chest. “I gotta go in to work for a while in the morning. I just finished that ’68 Cougar and the owners are comin’ to get it.”
“Can you guys go to Mom’s tomorrow?” Mick asked, looking at Esther. “Just while Otto’s at work?”
“Yeah, we can do that.”
“You have that doctor’s appointment in the afternoon. Shit.” Otto glanced over at the calendar hanging on the wall.
“We’ll go to your mom’s in the morning,” Noel said quietly. “Then you can come pick up Esther. Me and the girls can just stay there during your appointment.”
“That should work.”
“I’ll go call Heather and see if she’s home tomorrow,” Esther murmured, smiling up at Otto before leaving the kitchen.
“So,” Mick said, filling the silence that followed. “That was your husband’s family, huh?”
“They’re usually not that bad,” Noel replied, wincing. “We didn’t see them much. I’m actually kind of surprised Carl remembered the girls’ names. We saw Caleb’s mom Lucille a lot more often.”
I stood there quietly, barely breathing as my brothers asked Noel the questions that I couldn’t.
Noel’s husband Caleb was the younger of the brothers. Cory had already been married around twenty years when Noel and Caleb were married. He had children that were older than Noel. She didn’t think that Caleb and Cory had been particularly close because Carl had been really hard on them and the sibling rivalry ran deep. Lucille had been a nice mother-in-law for the most part but had very exacting standards, especially since Caleb was her baby and Noel had a reputation for veering off the path. Noel actually used that term. I knew how she’d gained that reputation, I’d been beside her as she’d done it. Hearing those words come out of her mouth made my body hum with rage.
Quietly, like she was confessing, Noel admitted that she’d tried to keep her distance from Caleb’s family after a dinner when Ariel was three when Lucille had spanked her for talking with her mouth full.
Mick made a sound of disgust in the back of his throat and Rumi let out a huff of air but Otto’s expression didn’t change—like he’d already heard the story. I wondered what else he might know, and if there was anything he’d be willing to tell me. Not that night, though, I wasn’t sure how much more I could take that night.
“It’s not that they’re bad people,” Noel said with a small shrug. “They just—”
“Nope.” I’d heard enough. My skin felt too tight for my body. It was a struggle to unclench my jaw so I could speak. “How old was your husband when you got married?”
“That’s not—”
“How old?” I asked again, my eyes on hers.
“Thirty-six,” she replied tightly.
“Good people don’t let their old ass son marry a teenager,” I said flatly. “Full stop.”
“Do not pass go,” Rumi muttered. “Do not collect two hundred dollars.”